Welcome to the Gamer's Source, your destination for gaming news and information. This past weekend was PAX, and as such, there's a lot of stories. SO without further ado, the news:
NUMBER One!
PAX is starting a new expo next year. According to an article on IGN, the new expo will be titled PAX South and will be hosted in San Antonio Texas in 2015.
This is not surprising, especially with the popularity the expos have been showing and the fact that indie game development is skyrocketing as the years go on and the large console companies are embracing indie games. Pretty sweet though. Anyone in the South West plan on going next year?
NUMBER Two!!
Rockband will be back for this new generation of consoles. According to GameInformer, Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos stated at PAX that the company will be reviving the franchise alongside Dance Central and has 'grand plans' for them. No further details have been given.
This is exciting news for fans of the series. I love the Rockband games and was very sad when they stopped dropping DLC songs for the games. My roommates and I played countless hours across all three of the core titles, so I can not wait for another game. What about you all? Would you buy another game in the series? Another peripheral for the series?
Number THREE!!!
Firaxis games has announced a new entry in a 20 year old franchise at PAX this weekend, according to an article on IGN. Civilization: Beyond Earth will take place after the Science Ending of Civilaztion 5 and will allow you to start the human colonization of space. The game is a spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri (which wasn't named with the Civilization title due to rights issues when it launched in 1999). This is exciting news for Civilization fans, as the game is looking to come out in the fall of this year.
Firaxis has been on fire for the past couple of years. Between Civilization 5 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the company has been churning out some great games for strategy fans, and this looks like it's going to be just as good.
Number FOUR!!!!
Two major indie developers in Microsoft's pocket have announced new games for Xbox One. The Behemoth, developers behind Castle Crashers and Battle Block Theater announced at PAX that the team is working on it's fourth game (titled "Game 4" for the time being), which will release on Xbox One, though no further details have been given other than the game will release this year and more details are to come at further expos.
The other announcement comes from Press Play, the developers behind Max: the Curse of Brotherhood. Title Project Totem, the puzzle platformer game will be coming to both 360 and Xbox One and will require the player to use different totem characters as one entity and as individuals to solve puzzles. The game will also release later this year.
This is exciting for Xbox One owners who have been lamenting the lack of games and the lack of information on games coming out on the console. Both of these studios are really good and it's exciting to see what they are working. Hopefully some more information about The Behemoth's next game will come sooner rather than later.
NUMBER FIVE!!!!!
Drink Box Studios has announced their next game. Titled Severed, the game is a mix between Metroid style exploration and Infinity Blade style combat and will be released on Mobile platforms, though the studio has announced interest in bringing the game to handhelds as well. The player will hack and slash enemies apart to use their body parts to become stronger and has a non-linear progression with skill trees to make it easier for players to play the way he/she wants to play. For more information, check out this article on Destructiod.
This is awesome! I love Drink Box as a studio because they make solid games the way they want to make them, so this is really exciting to hear. Though I'm not much of a mobile gamer, I'd love to see this on PS Vita.
NUMBER Six!!!!!!
Three PS Vita Japanese titles have Western releases in their future. Announced on PS Blog, Soul Sacrifice Delta, the 1.5 version of Soul Sacrifice, will be leading the charge with a release on May 13th.
Freedom Wars, a Monster Hunter style game involving children being trapped in prison who are trying to fight monsters to earn your freedom from your million year sentence, will also be making it's debut in the West alongside Oreshika: Tainted Blood, a JRPG where the player controls a clan of cursed members who only have a 2 year lifespan and must use those two years to break the curse. The game is heavily inspired by Japanese folklore with a beautiful art style. More information on both games will be coming soon.
On top of these three titles, the PS Vita will also be getting Dead Nation, the top down Zombie killing shooter. The game will launch tomorrow, April 15th, on the PS Store.
It also looks like Tales of Heart may be making it's way West as well. According to IGN, the Vita iteration of the game has been posted on Gamestop. More details are eagerly awaited.
This is awesome. I love my Vita, and any more AAA games for it is always good news. Now, Sony just needs to release some information on Gravity Rush 2 and I can die happy.
NUMBER Seven!!!!!!!
Titanfall will be getting some DLC, as announced at PAX this weekend. Titled Expedition, the DLC pack will include three new maps, including the swamp themed "Swampland", which has archaic alien technology strewn around and trees to parkour across. The DLC will be out this May.
DLC for really popular games is always great news. The Swampland map has me intrigued. It'll be great to hear what you all think of the DLC plans for Titanfall.
Number EIGHT!!!!!!!!
Over 85 000 Oculus Rift dev kits are out in the wild. Announced via news brief (and released on Gamasutra), the company stated over 25 000 units of dev kit 2.0 have been released, adding to the already 60 000 kits out in the wild.
This is pretty good news, considering everyone was so negative about the company's purchase by Facebook. Hopefully these dev kits go to good use creating some interesting experiences for gaming in the near future. What do you guys think?
Number NINE!!!!!!!!!
The Georgia state government has signed into law a bill to help Gaming companies receive tax credits. Signed in by state governor Nathan Deal, the bill will set aside $25 million in tax credits for game developers within the region, among other things non gaming related.
This is awesome. Gaming is a very large industry that is growing fast, and any help is much appreciated. Hopefully this will help the gaming studios in the region, including CCP, the developers behind EVE Online who had to lay off almost 60 employees today.
NUMBER TEN!!!!!!!!!!
Which leads into this next story. CCP Games is officially stopping development of World of Darkness MMO and laying off some of it's employees. Posted on it's blog, the company will stop the 8 year production cycle of the MMO, cancelling the project for good. 56 employees from the Atlanta based offices have been let go. My best wishes to those who lost their jobs today. Best of luck out there.
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And that's all for today. As always, please leave some comments below. Tell me what you think about the news and what is going on in the gaming space of today. Feel free to share with your friends and family. And, as always, keep the conversation going.
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